Lisovich Thomas J. 3-18-2015
Position paper: 2Y I.Q. V.S. environment

Does intelligence or environment better determine the likelihood of criminal behavior? Some believe that lack of intelligence or education is the main cause of people committing crimes. While others will argue that a negative environment is a much stronger influence, and that an education can just make it easier to commit such crimes.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about 41% of inmates in the Nation’s state and federal prisons and local jails in 1997 and 31% of probationers had not completed high school or its equivalent. In comparison, 18% of the general population age 18 or older had not finished the 12th grade. Between 1991 and 1997, the percent of inmates in State prison without a high school diploma or GED remained the same — 40% in 1997 and 41% in 1991. Of inmates in State prisons, 293,000 in 1991 and 420,600 in 1997 had entered prison without a high school diploma, a 44% increase. With statistics like this one could argue that education plays an enormous role in the likelihood of one committing a crime.

According to an article published in the “OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS” in 2013, Traditional biological theories state that individuals commit criminal acts due to biological or genetic defects. Crime is a result of these abnormalities, and not a choice made by the offender. Crime can be prevented by isolating, treating, separating, sterilizing, or killing the individual. Modern biosocial theories believe that an individual with an inherited trait can benefit from social programs, and that an inherited trait alone is not sufficient to doom an individual to a life of crime. It is important to note that biosocial theories have found new life in mainstream criminological theory. After being widely discredited, new biosocial theories that rely on advances in